Green and Galley not to face charges.

[Christine Murray]

Damian Green will not face charges over leak, says DPP - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Interesting this; and I know that it is referred to onsite as well.
The police raided Green's office: Home Office played up security risk of leaks before Green's arrest - Home News, UK - The Independent

(I put this link in here because there is a photo of the raid by police on the Shadow Immigration Minister's offices)

The Committee has concluded that the issue was played up and that it was in reaction to hyperbole, seems
like itchy trigger fingers all round then.

"We think it was unhelpful to give the police the impression that the Home Office leaker(s) had already
caused significant damage to National Security"

Christopher Galley will not now face charges either.


Damian Green arrest: no charges over Home Office leaks - Telegraph


Jacqui Smith - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[toxic avenger]

I posted this on the November thread when he was arrested but I think it's worth repeating:

This is becoming a massive political storm in Britain, and rightly so. It deserves much greater attention here also.

The Lib Dems have rowed in behind the Tories in attacking what happened, and many Labour backbenchers have openly done the same, not just on the left (Denis McShane, for example). Harriet Harman this morning expressed concern, while the Government are anxious to distance themselves, knowing they are on to a loser if they don't. A serious question is this. If the Met Police informed both the Speaker of the Commons (they can't set foot in Parliament without permission), and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson (who was placed in the invidious position of thinking it was crazy but having to keep his mouth shut), why did they not inform the Home Secretary, as is claimed by the Government? If they didn't, weren't they conducting a solo run, without having informed the relevant Minister? And, worse, what if they did? That would bring down the Government.

At the heart of all this, of course, is illegal immigration. The Government have been severely embarassed by the leaks. For example, the Home Office, of all places, has been shown to be employing several illegal immigrants, while one was even a Ministerial driver. The claim is that the leaks represent some kind of national security issue, yet the employment of unvetted immigrant staff at the Home Office seems less of concern. So why did the Met take off on such a controversial course of action with such zeal? The answer is that the relationship between the Met and the New Labour project is unhealthily close, with several senior police officers, including the ex-chief Ian Blair, either openly supporting, or owing their positions to, the New Labour Government. The Met has become a political weapon, and has lost all sense of objectivity. Only now, because of the sheer strength of hostility from all sides of political opinion to what they have done, have they begun to run for cover. In any democratic society, this is disturbing to say the least.

Expect this to run and run. The Tories smell blood, and they're right to do so.

I knew they'd back off and quietly drop the charges eventually and hope sufficient time had passed for the media attention to be much lessened. I hope the Tories push this back up to the top of the agenda again.

[Christine Murray]

l was going to say what if someone in justice here attempted to order such a provocation against our opposition, an intolerable situation, no ?

[Christine Murray]

smith had promised a procedural review and the q+a at link would back it up : http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...reen-leaks-row . keri stramer comments on case seem to highlight problems in the speaker's role and response to issues: why should a warrant for search have to be reffered to the speaker ?

[Christine Murray]

Seems like Smith is in trouble here re the CPS : Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph , its prob not a procedural issue after the fact.
cf the Stramer Q+A in above comment link (Guardian) ^

[toxic avenger]

The DPP QC today said that there was absolutely no basis for which to portray this as a national security issue, nor that this was anything else than public interest material. In other words, backed up Green 100% and completely contradicted the lies put out by Labour, Smith in particular. Green today said that it was symptomatic of the culture in government and that they had simply been in far too long. I'm no Tory but he was right on the button. They have to go.

[toxic avenger]

Green was just interviewed by Paxman on Newsnight, he revealed that the police, whom he thought didn't have a clue what they were doing, threatened him with a life sentence! He says he assumed they were bulsh1tting on the basis that there was no defined sentence for such a case, but that it was outrageous. I have to say I don't know if I'm more bothered by the heavy-handedness or by the clear stupidity and ineptitude...

[Christine Murray]

Brown is currently apologising on the smear campaign and has not responded on the speaker's comments re refferals on procedural issues vaguely signalled by Smith at the outset = thundering disgrace.

[toxic avenger]

brown is currently apologising on the smear campaign and has not responded on the speaker's comments re refferals on procedural issues vaguely signalled by smith at the outset = thundering disgrace.

Yes, and the Tories are themselves openly saying that the 'apology' is a deliberate piece of news management to keep the Green story off the top of the news. It hasn't really worked though, the news organisations seem to be wise to it...

[Christine Murray]

Political bloggers and London Independent seem to think Smith's dead walking:

Today in Politics - The bell tolls for Jacqui Smith

In the meantime the Tories are discussing Met politics over on Telegraph:

Police told Damian Green he 'faced life in prison over Home Office leaks' - Telegraph